With the advent of messaging devices and mobile telephones, the wireless service industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association calculates that 120 million Americans own a mobile telephone—about half of the U.S. population. As the development of mobile telephones progresses, many mobile customers are upgrading to pricier phones and phone services that include a plethora of features and settings. One aspect of the consumer mobile market that has enjoyed recent popularity is the sale of customization items. Customization items are items that are used by consumers to make their wireless devices more unique or identifiable. Examples of customization items are colored or patterned faceplates, special ring tones and display graphics. Typical keypads on a wireless device, however, are backlit using only one color of light. As consumers seek more sophisticated products, there is a need to provide more customizability in mobile products.
One obstacle to providing customization items to consumers is the light pipe typically used in wireless devices to disperse light among the display, i.e., backlighting the display. The light pipe captures light from LEDs and disperses the light in a substantially even manner among the area of the light pipe, so as to backlight a display. Most wireless devices, however, are designed such that the light pipe captures only the light from only one LED or one set of LEDs. If another LED or set of LEDs were added to the system and was located in a different position, the light pipe would not be able to capture the light emitted from that LED or set of LEDs. This is disadvantageous as it prevents a manufacturer from providing an upgrade product including a new LED or set of LEDs for backlighting a display.
Another problem encountered with mobile products is that backlighting of displays is not always uniform. A display is typically backlit to allow a user to see the display when the mobile telephone is located in an area having little or no ambient light. However, often there are dark areas in a display that appear because the light emitted from backlighting Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is not reflected onto these areas of the display. Because these dark areas are not backlit or illuminated, the information displayed in these areas of the display may not be seen, or may be difficult to see, when the wireless device is located in an area having little or no ambient light.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.